EXCLUSIVE: Brentford ready to play with the big boys

MARK WARBURTON aims to bring a slice of Barcelona to the Championship this season. And Sporting Lisbon. And Ajax. All of the clubs where he learned the art and science of coaching after jacking in his lucrative career in the City to follow his dream.

Mark Warburton leads Brentford into the Championship this season[GETTY]

Warburton has promised his Brentford side will go for it this season the way a lion goes for a gazelle. By the throat. Attack, attack is his mantra and he got it from foreign fields.

"My teams will attack, but not in a naive way," he says. "After teams score they naturally drop 10 metres, it's a defensive attitude, hold what you've got and a fear of losing.

"For us, the best form of defence is keep doing what you are doing well. Our players are financially incentivised to go and score more goals to earn points.

"It's like a brickie; if you do 10 hours overtime you want to get paid for it. For my players, when it's 1-1 away at a tough venue, don't be content with that. Go and get that second goal and you get looked after. It's just like the City, the more you earn, the more you make."

Warburton, 51, made enough from his job as a trader to bankroll his gamble that he could become a coach in football, a coach who would make an impact and help change attitudes in the game. After working his way up at Watford to become academy manager, he moved to Brentford as first-team coach for Nicky Forster, then as director of football under Uwe Rosler.

When Rosler left for Wigan in December, Warburton was appointed manager, won his first six games and led Brentford to promotion.

Burnley had a similar budget last year and look what Sean Dyche did there

Mark Warburton

His year in Europe has paid off handsomely.

"I was fortunate to be able to go for a year and work at European clubs Barcelona, Valencia, Inter, Sporting Lisbon, Ajax. You go for a weekend, you get a handshake and a speech about, 'This is our philosophy' and you don't really learn anything.

"I learned how they treat the kids, how they deal with the difficult kid, how do they develop specific skills, every little detail I could.

"Sporting Lisbon are renowned for their wingers, Nani, Ronaldo, Figo. They still are and they do that by working on one-v-one all the time from an early age."

Warburton's playing career was ended early by a knee injury but he admits he was no great shakes as a player - happy to play non-league at Enfield and make a mint as a trader. The coaching itch was always there.

"Giving up my job to go into football wasn't a whim, far from it," he said. "Wherever I worked in the world for the bank I was always coaching, under-9s in Chicago or a bank team in Carolina.

"But having the chat with the wife, it's funny now but it wasn't very humorous at the time. I had to go in and say I'm earning X, I'm about to earn X minus 93 per cent. Frightening.

"Fortunately I could rely on the funds I made and I gave myself 10 years to achieve something, That was back in 2003 and here we are."

Here we are is Brentford back in the second tier of English football for the first time in 21 years and very much the minnows of the division. Their average crowd of 7,715 last season did not put them in even the top eight in League One. And this in a season when they won 19 of their 23 home games.

Their playing budget is far smaller than the sum Fulham paid Leeds for Ross McCormack. Ten of the clubs in the Championship are boosted by parachute money.

Surely Warburton, who has been a manager for only eight months, must feel his hands are tied behind his back?

Not at all. "We look at positives from other clubs," he said. "Burnley had a similar budget last year and look what Sean Dyche did there. Bournemouth punched above their weight. We are regarded as the smallest club in this division but we will relish that."

The ambition that drives Warburton is shared by the club's owner Matthew Benham who has already committed to building a new stadium near Kew Bridge, which will open in 2016 and given his manager a new contract last month.

"It took a lot of courage by the owner to put in an unknown guy in charge of his team," says Warburton. "Now I have to repay that faith - I paid off a bit last season but it's still a massive debt I owe him."